Jobless Wall Streeters sour on finance careers

The scent of money that drew many professionals to jobs on Wall Street has been dissipating, according to a survey of out-of-work finance folk released this week.

The survey of financial job-seekers, conducted by financial recruiting service OneWire.com, showed that 41% of those polled said they no longer believe finance to be as desirable a career path as they once did.

Contrast that to the firm’s June survey, when 84% of respondents said they would still choose a career in finance if given the chance to “start over” in their professional lives.

OneWire.com attributes the disparity to the different phrasing of the questions in the survey—and to the proposed caps on bonuses and pay packages that have been floating around Congress recently.

In the December survey, 79% of respondents admitted that their job search is taking longer than they thought it would, though two-thirds of the job seekers were confident they’d land a job within the next six months.

That self-assurance, among a cohort of highly self-assured people, has slipped somewhat. Six months ago, three-quarters of those surveyed expected to land a job within six months.

“This is an incredibly competitive group of people,” said OneWire.com Chairman Skiddy von Stade, who sees the data in a positive light, pointing out that despite the ongoing financial crisis, 67% of folks are still looking for jobs in finance. “They’re smart. They will be successful no matter what.”

To wit, 39% of the jobseekers said they are now willing to settle for “anything related to their field,” while 57% said they’d even be willing to take a finance job that pays less than their most recent job.

But Mr. von Stade said there’s evidence pay is increasing. Salary guarantees are back in vogue, he says, as smaller broker-dealers and hedge funds are starting up at a quick clip.

“Smaller boutique investment banks are definitely hiring right now,” he said, adding that in addition to restructuring, which has been growing all year, both leveraged finance firms and mergers and acquisitions groups seem to be hiring.

The survey also shows that some vestiges of Wall Street bravado never fade away: fully 58% of those surveyed in December said they expected the total compensation of their next job (the one they expect to land over the next six months, of course) to be equal to or higher than their last job. Six months ago, when hiring was even bleaker and banks seemed even more troubled, that number was the same.

“What can I say, these people are naturally and inherently confident,” Mr. von Stade said.

This story was first published by sister publication Crain’s New York Business.